Ominous Footfalls of a Horrific Crime

By Vinod Varshney

Who can oppose the harshest of punishment for a rapist? But making an inhuman law and not having safeguards against its misuse defeat its purpose. The task to eliminate the root causes of crimes against women is as difficult as they are varied. So the lawmakers chose the easy path: to enact a stringent law, more so because it was perceived as vote catching too. All parties barring a few jumped at it. BJP leaders appeared more feminist than feminists themselves in their game of one-upmanship.

Many felt the law was enacted in a hurry, without requite, wider debate. Even when it was debated in the Lok Sabha general apathy was palpably visible in the skimpy attendance and indifferent participation. Many women for whose safety the law was enacted said it was lopsided and discriminatory.

A good law ought to ensure punishment of the guilty and make safeguards against harassment of the innocent. Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan showed the sense to say in parliament that the anti-rape Bill was anti-male and its provisions made men vulnerable to its misuse. Sumitra Mahajan of the BJP also cautioned against its widespread misuse. Sharad Yadav feared that the law could be misused if a love affair ended on the rocks. Women activist Madhu Kishwar pointed out that it was gruesome to make a law according to which having sex meant either marriage or jail for the next 10 to 20 years.

Even consensual sex has been vitiated by gender-bias. After indulging in consensual sex, if a girl changes her mind and does not want to marry, she can just walk away. But the boy, he can be booked as a rapist. If a married couple breaks up, the matter ends in divorce, rather than sending the husband to jail on rape charge; but this cannot be done if a breach occurs during the live-in relationship, or courting.

In short, the law as passed can only create an environment of hostility and suspicion between man and woman. It destroys the mutual attraction between the two sexes—the universal, beautiful gift of nature-- on which the succession of all species depends.

Alas! Many NGOs who not only seek funds from abroad, but also import damaging habit, behaviour and ideas give women only broken marriages, spinsterhood and everlasting bitterness. Today in France many men and women (their number is increasing) do not want to marry: they prefer unromantic live-in relationship to wedded bliss. Even if they marry, two out of three couples end up in divorce.

The situation in the US is worse. There the institution of marriage which normally signifies the union between man and woman has been reduced to a prosaic business contract. They make and break them any number of times. People await with interest the US apex court verdict --likely to come in June-- on same sex marriage. Nine out of 50 states in the US have already recognised same sex marriage. Surprisingly 58 percent of people support it. If we continue to ape the west, the same trend may come to India as well. But where will children come from?

The brutal rape case of December 16 last is indeed pregnant with surprises. One has already come from Mysore University: it has allowed reservation in admissions to rape-victims! Such mindless indulgence can pervert society and induce a woman to declare herself a victim of abuse for the sake of claiming a university seat!! What next is the question.....



Note: The article was first published in the April, 2013 issue
of 'Lokayat' magazine.